Maia Sandu
The head of state specified that one case about an organized criminal group has been pending for 11 years, and the statute of limitations will expire in 4 years. Another case on drug trafficking has been in court for 7 years, and cases on embezzlement of property have been pending for 9 and 11 years.
The President also mentioned the Banca de Economii case which has been pending since 2013, as well as other bank fraud cases from 2018-2022. She emphasized that in some cases, only 3 witnesses were questioned in 3 years, while in other cases, only 5 witnesses were questioned in 5 years. Maia Sandu said that such deliberate delays may indicate that some judges are pursuing illegal gains.
“What is happening with these cases? Who is punishing this kind of behavior? I have not seen any decisive reactions from the self-governing bodies. The Superior Council of Magistracy should have taken these cases much more seriously,” Maia Sandu told a press conference on December 30.
In this context, the President welcomed the adoption of Law No. 333 by the Parliament, which provides for the extension of the emergency evaluation procedure (vetting) also to the first instance judges dealing with corruption cases.
“On the initiative of Parliament, it has been proposed to include in the emergency assessment process also first instance judges, i.e. those who have heard or are hearing corruption cases and related acts since 2017. I believe it is necessary to go further, especially given that the European Commission’s 2025 Enlargement Report recommends that the legislation be amended to provide for mandatory external evaluation of all judges specialized in the fight against corruption, including judges of the specialized panel of first instance by the relevant external evaluation commission,” the President said.
In this regard, she called on the Parliament, the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Council of Magistracy and other responsible bodies to set up a working group and urgently take measures to revise the vetting mechanism to expand the categories of judges subject to extraordinary evaluation and/or to speed up the internal procedures of the ECCJ panel in evaluating judges’ performance.
“I want to recognize and appreciate the efforts of honest people in the system – judges and prosecutors who do their work responsibly despite pressure from corrupt groups. But it is necessary that all judges and prosecutors in all institutions and at all levels observe correct behavior. Therefore, the reforms will continue,” concluded Maia Sandu.
It should be noted that at the last plenary meeting of the winter session, the Parliament adopted a draft law aimed at strengthening transparency and integrity in the judiciary and prosecutor’s office. The law updates the procedure of publishing normative acts issued by the Supreme Council of Magistrates and the Supreme Council of Prosecutors (SCP). In addition, the draft provides for the retention of the Minister of Justice as an ex-officio member of the HSP, as well as the extension of the mandatory external evaluation of judges specializing in corruption cases, including judges of first instance.
